Well, looks like our little Josh is a cryptorchid dog. He has one testicle that just won't come down. I'm not upset because he can't breed, we planned to neuter him anyway. It'll just be harder to do it, maybe 3 incisions instead of one. That's not counting his dewclaws which we planned to have removed at the same time (because he's going to be a tracking dog). Our vet wants us to keep him quiet for 5 days, (he's 16 weeks, don't know if that's going to happen). He's going to be an unhappy little guy.

It can take longer than 4 months for a pups testicle to drop...Ed has it in an article somewhere - I wouldn't bee too quick to neuter.

Does anyone remember where he talks about crytorchid dogs and when to neuter and when to wait and see?

I think 16 weeks is too early to say it's not going to drop. I have a male Doberman whose first one didn't drop till he was six and a half months old. I always knew we were going to have him neutered, but I wanted to wait till he was around a year and a half old. The second one never did come down, and I was very concerned that they would have to hunt around his abdominal cavity to find it, but, fortunately, it was sitting right above the descended one and the vet was able to get it out the same incision.

I'd forget the dewclaws. It's painful and one rarely, really rarely every sees a damaged dewclaw. Unless this is going to be in some special environment I really might re-consider that.

I don't know Eds article but personal experience...I had a cryptorchid drop FINALLY at just over a year. I wouldn't rush to neuter for a ton of reasons but would certainly wait on this. JMHO. I have also had dogs with inguinal hernias that the vets were hysterical to get into surgery and the darn things healed without issue in a few months. "practicing" medicine.

I'd agree with everyone that already posted...
I would wait till he's AT LEAST a year old. There are SOOOO many reasons to wait to neuter, and the less invasive surgery would be a high one on my list.

My Dutch Shepherd has some massive dew claws, and they've only bothered him when he was climbing a 8' chain link fence... (shame...) We are in some pretty intense brush out hiking going out with the Search and Rescue teams (human teams, he's not a SAR dog, but gets to come on training missions). I'd leave the dews. They are not attractive, but after a pup is a couple days old they are VERY painful to remove.

Is there a rush to neuter him, or can it be safely delayed at least 9 months to give him some time to mentally mature, growth plates close, and give that last testicle some time to drop on it's own??

In my opinion, either remove the dewclaws with when the pups are a few days old or not at all. I've heard nothing but bad things about surgery to remove them later including infection risk, severe and lasting pain, and other issues.

All my dogs have dewclaws, and my dogs run in snow, brush, on rocks, a couple hours a day. Dewclaws have never once caused a problem. Keep them trimmed, or tape if it's really needed.

Most of the information I've read says that you have until the dog is about 4 to neuter for cryptochordism, in terms of cancer risk. But I'd wait until the pup is at least a year.



Please don't remove the dewclaws. Period. I can't think of any positives.

There are lots of reasons to remove dewclaws, especially if they're "danglers," doubles, or have a bizarrely twisted nail. I would also opt to remove if my dog was working around lines like a husky, was particularly abusive to that digit through tree climbing or digging, or ran through uneven terrain. That said I'd go for a laser over the old fashion knife removal and I'd be hesitant if the nail and toe were small or firmly attached or the dog had a lot of movement control on that digit.

I've seen a number of dogs who have had their dews removed at the time they're spayed or neutered. I've never heard of any real issues with it that wasn't related to another management issue like post op infection or not keeping the dog quiet/clean for a few days.

As most have pointed out though a great many dogs live their whole life with dewclaws with zero problems. Personally I'll opt to remove just about every time after seeing what happens when a dog gets hung up by his thumb. Of my last three dogs who have had dewclaws all three have at some point in their lives have managed to get hung up at least once on something. The last one was Booker who managed to get his dewclaw caught in his tag ring. From zero to screaming frothing panic, happily I was sitting right there to save him.

JMHO of course, best of luck with your pup.

I've seen a lot of dewclaws ripped/torn off. And oddly enough, when its happened, the dogs don't really seem too bent out of shape about it. I really don't think there's as much sensation in there as one would think. In fact, I've seen a couple dogs actually chew off their own dewclaw after an injury to it. And I've also seen a number of dogs that have them removed during spay/neuter as Melissa pointed out. They really seemed like they were in ZERO discomfort only 1 or 2 days out of surgery. I wouldn't blink at having them removed if they started causing any problems with my dog.

We were going to wait a little while on neuter anyway. Till he's 6 months or more.

It doesn't really matter to us if he has dewclaws or not. We're not removing them because of how they look. As a tracking dog he's going to be moving pretty quickly through thick brush and wooded areas, one of the citys tracking dogs was going after some guy and got his hung on a mesquite branch, it tore off and caused him a lot of pain. They couldn't get him to go in wooded areas again after that. If he wasn't going to be a working dog we wouldn't even consider having them removed.

His tracking lessons are going great by the way. He seems to have a real talent
for it